Fountain tooth brush



FOUNTAIN TOOTH BRUSH Filed July 15, 1955 MAE Y E EEO/4W INVENTORSA77'OZA/EKS United States Patent FOUNTAIN TOOTH BRUSH Mary E. Brown andFrank H. Brown, Arlington, Calif.

Application July 15, 1955, Serial No. 522,193

2 Claims. (Cl. -133) This invention relates to tooth brushes, and moreparticularly to an improved tooth brush of the fountain type especiallyadapted for use by children.

A main object of the invention is to provide a novel and improvedfountain tooth brush which is simple in construction, which is easy tooperate, and which is attractive in appearance, whereby the tooth brushappeals to children and stimulates children to form the habit of dailytooth care.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved fountaintooth brush which is inexpensive to manufacture, which is durable inconstruction, and which is of special interest to children, creating thedesire to employ the tooth brush because of its resemblance to a toywater pistol.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparentfrom the following description and claims, and from the accompanyingdrawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view, partly broken away, of an improvedfountain tooth brush constructed in accordance with the presentinvention.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the forward portion of the toothbrush of Figure 1, said plan view being taken on line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical cross sectional view taken on line 3-3of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is an elevational view of a holster which may be employed asthe supporting bracket for the tooth brush of Figures 1 to 3.

Referring to the drawing, the improved fountain tooth brush isdesignated generally at 11 and comprises an elongated barrel member 12having a reduced forward end portion 13, said forward end portion beingfurther reduced at 15, defining a tooth brush back. Designated at 16 area pair of rows of tooth brush bristle tufts secured in parallelrelationship to the reduced portion 15,"

defining a tooth brush head.

The reduced portion 15 is formed with a plurality of longitudinallyspaced apertures 17 located midway between the rows of bristle tufts 16,as shown in Figure 3, for example, three apertures 17 being provided,said apertures being spaced uniformly along the tooth brush back element15.

The barrel 12 is formed with a hollow depending handle member 18 inwhich is rigidly secured the horizontally extending cylinder 19. Apiston 20 is slidably mounted in the cylinder 19 and is urged forwardlyby a coil spring 21 in the cylinder bearing between the piston 20 andthe rear end wall of the cylinder, as shown in dotted view in Figure 1.Axially secured to the piston 20 is a piston rod 22 which extendssealingly and slidably through the front wall of the handle 18 and whichis provided on its forward end with a trigger-like, arcuately curved barelement 23, said bar element being located within a trigger guard loop24 connecting the bottom surface of the barrel member 12 to the frontedge surface of the handle 18.

ice

The cylinder 19 is formed at its rear portion with 21 depending conduitelement 25 which terminates at a point adjacent to but spaced from thebottom of the handle 18. Connected to the top of the cylinder 19 inalignment with the conduit 25 is a conduit 26 which extendslongitudinally through the barrel 12 and which communicates with a bore27 formed in the forward end portion of the barrel and which in turncommunicates with the apertures 17. Suitable check valves are providedat the connections of conduit elements 25 and 26 to cylinder 19, saidcheck valves being shown in dotted view above and below the rear portionof the cylinder in Figure 1.

The rear end of the barrel 12 is hollow and is provided with a removableplug or cap 28 which may be removed when it is desired to fill thehandle 18 with liquid, such as with water.

In using the device, the person employing same grasps the handle in themanner of a conventional water pistol and, after applying suitable toothcleaning material to the bristles 16, reciprocates the bristles over theteeth while at the same time squeezing the trigger bar element 23 toprovide a flow of water to the bristles simul taneously with theapplication of the tooth cleaning ma terial to the teeth.

It will be readily apparent that the appearance of the device is such asto create suitable interest in children and to stimulate children to usethe device, thus creating the habit of daily tooth care.

Referring to Figure 4, 30 designates a bracket member in the form of aholster adapted to receive the device 11, the holster having the rearwall 31 provided at its top portion with the eyelet 32, whereby theholster may he hung in a suitable location to support the fountain toothbrush device 11.

As shown in Figure 4, the holster 30 comprises a transversely extending,relatively wide supporting strap element 33 which is secured at its sidemargins to the downwardly tapering side marginal portions of the mainbody 31 of the holster, defining a receptacle to receive the fountaintooth brush device 11.

While a specific embodiment of an improved fountain tooth brush has beendisclosed in the foregoing description, it will be understood thatvarious modifications within the spirit of the invention may occur tothose skilled in the art. Therefore it is intended that no limitationsbe placed on the invention except as defined by the scope of theappended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A fountain tooth brush comprising an elongated horizontal barrelmember, a plurality of tooth brush bristle tufts secured to andprojecting laterally from one side of one end of said barrel member, adepending hollow handle secured to the other end of said barrel member,a cylinder mounted horizontally in said handle member and communicatingat one end thereof with the interior of said handle member, first checkvalve means in the connection between said one end of the cylinder andthe interior of the handle member, a piston in said cylinder, a pistonrod connected to said piston and extending sealingly through the forwardedge of said handle member, said one side of the one end of the barrelmember being formed with a plurality of spaced apertures locatedadjacent said bristle tufts, conduit means in the barrel memberconnecting said apertures with said one end of the cylinder, and secondcheck valve means at the connection of said conduit means to said oneend of the cylinder.

2. A fountain tooth brush comprising an elongated horizontal barrelmember, a plurality of tooth brush bristle tufts secured to andprojecting laterally from one side of one end of said barrel member, adepending hollow handle secured to the other end of said barrel member,a cylinder mounted horizontally in said hollow handle, a depending tubeconnected to one end of said cylinder and terminating adjacent thebottom of said hollow handle, a first check'valve in the connection ofsaid tube to said one end of the cylinder, a piston in said cylinder, apiston rod connected to said piston and extending sealingly through theforward edge of said handle, a trigger-like bar element secured on theouter end of said piston rod, said one side of the one end of the barrelmember being formed with a plurality of longitudinally spaced apertureslocated adjacent said bristle tufts, conduit means in the barrel memberconnecting said apertures "with said one end of the cylinder, and asecond check valve in the connection between said conduit means and saidone' end of the cylinder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D.175,198 Tasneret al. July 19, 1955 776,468 Hosmer -t Nov. 29, 1904FOREIGN PATENTS 998,699 France Sept. 26, 1951

